'Avatar' producer confirms Vin Diesel won't be part of film franchise

WASHINGTON: Actor Vin Diesel will ultimately not be part of the future instalments of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ franchise, recently confirmed the movie’s producer.

According to Variety, an American media company, despite the ‘Fast and Furious’ star heavily indicating in 2019 that he joined Cameron’s long-awaited sequels, franchise producer Jon Landau has confirmed to Empire magazine that Diesel isn’t in the ‘Avatar’ sequels after all.

Rumors of Diesel’s ‘Avatar’ casting were ignited in 2019 after the actor posted a video to Instagram with Cameron from the film’s set.

He said, “There is one person in Hollywood I’ve always wanted to work with and learn from, and so, all things come, I guess, to those that wait.” The video inspired headlines such as ‘Vin Diesel Appears to Join ‘Avatar’ Sequels’, reported Variety.

In later interviews, Diesel seemingly confirmed the news, telling MTV, “I love James Cameron and I love the series, and I think it’s safe to say that we will be working together.”

“Vin was a fan. He came in, visited the set one day to see what we were doing and people took that out of context,” Landau now clarifies, according to Deadline.

Diesel’s involvement in the ‘Avatar’ franchise was probably taken out of context because he flat out told Entertainment Tonight that his friendship with franchise actor Zoe Saldana was one of the reasons he was “doing ‘Avatar.'”

Even without the ‘Avatar’ sequels, Diesel is set to keep his franchise skills alive with the upcoming ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ and ‘Fast X’. He’ll also be front and center in an 11th and final ‘Fast and Furious’ movie, as per Deadline.